Highhway to the Sky
by Gene'sGenie
Summary: Sam makes the wrong descison and must face the consequences, but is it to late to be saved? PG for language No pairings or slash, possibly sam/annie but only vaguley thanks to my beta reader dakfinv who 1 of the characters is named after :
1. Chapter 1

Sam sat down on the bed with his head in his hands. The rain beat against his window, the sound of his breath echoed loud accompanied by his heartbeat.

Alone

For the first time all day he could think, but before he had a chance to finally straighten out the thoughts spinning in his head he felt the inexorable grip of tiredness creep up on him.

Lying back with a thump, the sobs racked his body. He wept until his heart ached with longing, pulling him into the painful nothing induced by the numbing amounts of alcohol he had been consuming solidly. Sleep was a long time coming but when it came it brought restless dreams of whirling, screaming noise. Old memories of Annie, yelling at him not to leave him while she hauled Chris along. Maya saying goodbye echoed in his drunken mind.

"Sam?"

The knock at the door ripped through the dregs of sleep in Sam's brain. Rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand he stretched torpidly and reached for the latch of the door.

Annie.

She stood nervously in the hall looking at him with worried, deep brown eyes.

"Sam?" her voice begged him to be okay. " Are you alright? … Only, you missed work today and yesterday. You didn't ring to say you were ill and _I_ thou-I mean the Guv' thought you might be a bit… well… you know"

"Tied up?"

He grimaced as voice showed its disuse and he leant heavily against the doorframe.

He gestured for her to come in, and she inhaled sharply and stepped over the threshold. There were whisky bottles in a row by the bed and an aroma of sickly sweet alcohol and the faint scent of vomit. She stood and watched him wobble his way to the bathroom and sighed as she saw the hurt he was pushing away.

Sam was washing his face and looked at himself in the mirror for the first time in two days. He was growing a beard; he lifted an arm to rub bemusedly at the new hair on his face. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair a mess.

"Sam…" Annie called " I should get back to work, the Guv' said to pass on this message and come straight back." A long pause, "He said… get your arse into gear and…"_come back soon_ she added silently.

Sam smiled as; no doubt Annie had censored and refined the worst of Gene's command. The door slammed and he grabbed his jacket, dashing after Annie.


	2. Chapter 2

Gene, snorted as Sam slammed the door of his office with a smirk, he opened one eye. Taking the cigarette from his mouth he drew himself up to start shouting at his D.C.I., Phyllis, poking her head round the door, stalled him.

" Sorry to…disturb you two" she raised an eyebrow sarcastically,

"The rest of the unit is making their way down to the scene of a murder, to get on with some real work, it's up behind the work site of the highway." The door slammed behind her.

Gene grunted and threw his coat on with a last glare at Sam, who rolled his eyes and followed with a sigh.

The cortina screeched to a halt, as Sam looked around he felt a sense of déjà vu. He was once again wandering among his fevered dreams, the sound of a young girl sobbing echoed loudly, he felt someone punch him, hard and the ground was cold against his cheek…Sam blinked and the residue of his dream left him.

Chris lumbered past, pale with his hand over his mouth,

Sam broke into a steady jog that built up into a run as he heard the Guv's shout.

"Tyler!"

There on the ground was the body of a girl, about sixteen or seventeen; her face was all too familiar.

Sam groaned as he recalled meeting the girl.

Gene slammed him against a fence.

Sam looked around and saw, the first thing he had ever seen of 1973. The fence, which he was currently forced up against, was the same one that had encased the car and worksite of the Manchester motorway.

He whimpered which turned into a moan of pain as Gene punched him in the gut, hard.

"What was that for?"

"It's her isn't it?" The Guv hissed into his ear,

The girl had visited them at the station about a week ago and Sam hadn't liked the look of her. Chris offered her a cup of tea and she smiled. The last time he saw that smile was on the lips of the Test Card Girl when she was being particularly vicious. Chris had backed away hurriedly and called for Sam.

Against his instincts he took the girl into the interview room and talked to her. Sarah, as the girl was called, had come to see them about a brick through her back window. Sam had politely told her that the police had real work to get on with, and if she felt threatened should contact uniform or file a written complaint if she thought she knew who did it. In his defence, Sam thought, he was still sorting out paperwork from Mr Lamb's arrest.


	3. Chapter 3

The room was echoing with the silence of the dead.

Tears ran down Sam's face silently as he held the hand of the lifeless girl lying on the table in the morgue.

"I'm sorry…so sorry…" The words died in his throat as he saw the cuts on her face and the dark purple bruises, they stopped at the neck and the damage on her arms at her shoulder. She had no other wounds. The room felt dark and cold.

"Tyler" Gene called to him, " you did what you thought was best. Tosser as you are, me and the boys are going for a drink, want to come?"

"Yeh" Sam followed mutely; maybe the alcohol would make him forget.

His head hurt, his mouth felt like sandpaper. Sam rolled over and suddenly was wide awake,

"Sam? Sam? Can you hear me?"

The beep of the television echoed in his ears,

"I need your help, they're coming for him, and when you're demons arrive I'll be so lonely, are you lonely Sam? I'll be your friend, Sam? Sam?"

The girl was holding her clown and she made it give a little wave before laughing at him. Her face changed, it was the dead girl, or was it? She had the same smile but with brown hair, and something was not right in her eyes, she laughed and showed too much of her teeth. There was a dusty open space of ground the sound of sirens and a familiar sounding girl sobbing. The dreams were back. He pulled the covers over his head.

"I brought you a nice cuppa before the Guv gets a chance to have another go at you,"

Annie smiled and placed the mug down in front of him.

"I…had a dream Annie..."

"Oh Sam I thought you'd stopped all that,"

Sam looked at her and saw how anxious she was that she couldn't stop the pain inside him.

"Yeh, don't worry I'm fine."


	4. Chapter 4

Sam blinked, his eyes heavy with sleep, as he heard the crash and watched as his door slammed towards the ground.

Gene beckoned to him and walked back down the corridor. Sam pulled on his clothes and raced after him.

The cortina screeched to a halt, Sam looked around and saw, what he had expected to see, the same dusty ground and battered sign announcing the impending work on the road.

There were police cars parked everywhere and a tape barrier, which Gene ducked under,

"What's going on Guv?"

Sam heard the sound of a girl sobbing, just as he had done his dream.

It was Annie; he hadn't recognized her voice as someone had their hand over her mouth and a gun to her head.

"We were checking out how forensics had done when this bloke jumped out and started waving a gun about, next thing we know he's got Annie."

Someone else came running out of the horizon, this time a woman dressed all in black with a balaclava on her head, the same as the man holding Annie.

The man laughed and pulled Annie up out of her kneeling position.

"This your bird D.C.I Tyler?"

Sam flinched as the man said his name but didn't react.

"She's very pretty…" The man leered through the hole in the cloth where his mouth was.

Gene grabbed a gun off Ray and advanced towards the space that had been cleared.

The masked girl tossed a knife to the man, who caught it and unsheathed it.

"Come any further Mr Hunt, we'll be leaving you a mark to remember…"

"What do you want?" Gene barked as he raised the gun.

"Drop the gun Mr Hunt."

Gene put his finger on the trigger; the man put the knife against Annie's cheek and sliced a deep wound into her flesh

Then the man placed the knife against Annie's throat and pressed so that a thin trickle of blood sullied the blade.

Gene threw the gun to the ground.

Annie looked at Sam, and as he saw the shock in her eyes he heard a noise behind him, he went to turn around but as he did so the man released Annie and pushed towards the ground, cutting of a large lock of her hair as he did so.

" I'm sorry Sam…" The words died on her lips as he felt someone slam into him from behind.

A pair of handcuffs were slipped over his wrists and clicked into place.

Around him the skeleton crew that had turned up (each in their own car, which Sam rather randomly thought was _just_ the problem with global warming) which consisted of Chris, Ray, and a few plods gawping as he was dragged to a car and thrown in the back.

The car bumped along as he struggled against the handcuffs and the ropes that had been tied around his feet, he succeeded in falling off the seat so that he was wedged between the chair in front, and the edge of a spring that had broken through the cover of the seat.

Annie sobbed as she watched the car pull away with a screech of brakes and a squeal of the tyres.


	5. Chapter 5

Dark.

That was the first thought that entered Sam's head as he struggled to open his eyes, then realised they were open.

Wet.

Was the second thing, he felt the damp which -he hoped- was water seeping into his clothes.

And finally,

Pain.

It was aching all over his body and when he moved to sit up, several freshly scabbed cuts ripped open.

Unfortunately the extra pain was for nothing as he was tied to something, flat to the ground.

He lay back and moaned through the gag covering his mouth and prayed for someone to find him.

Gene looked around at his officers and Annie sitting alone at her desk, tears running down her cheeks as she wrote a case summary. Gene knew that if Sam had been here he would have known exactly what to do to make Annie stop crying, but that was exactly the problem. Sam. He almost reached out to her to comfort her, but then, he saw the other officers watching him and straightened up, clearing his throat.

"Right!" he barked, " we need to find our D.I., and soon, so you lot better get started before I send to Hyde for another science queen."

Annie smiled through her tears and left the room. A general buzz of activity rippled through the room.

Gene shook his hip flask and a final drop fell onto his tongue as he leant back on the chair in his office.

"Err Guv'"

"Chris spit it out and get me some more whisky"

Chris looked nervously at Ray, who poked him in the back,

"Well, Annie said to do what the boss would do if it were different, so I checked out records of female kidnappers, down at the collators and we came back with two positive results, then Ray pointed out that one of them was dead so…"

Gene snatched the file,

_Lauren Finv convicted of the kidnapping, GBH and eventual murder of three victims, known accomplices: Gary Kent and Rob Camburt._

Gene looked at Chris' grinning face,

"Did you read it?"

"No Guv'"

Gene grabbed his coat and strode from the room,

Chris picked up the file and followed.

The wind whipped Gene's hair around his face and Chris staggered out of the Cortina to be violently sick into a handy bush.

The land around them was bleak and empty,

"Why are we here Guv'?" apart from a smallish warehouse

Gene didn't answer but walked slowly towards a corrugated iron shelter.


	6. Chapter 6

Sam blinked, it must have been raining as more water was trickling down his head and onto his face, and it was funny that he couldn't feel it.

"Poor Mr Tyler, shower cold?"

Sam blinked again and awoke; he was tied to a pillar in the middle of an empty, rusty, deserted warehouse.

He smiled, this must be a dream, he thought,

"I can see the clown…"

"What? Gary how hard did you hit him?"

The red figure ran across his vision,

"It's no good, I've seen you now."

The iron pipe that smacked into his back certainly felt real, sending blinding pain down his spine, but the Test Card Girl just danced around the building, her face was different again, who did it remind him of? The light was fading from his vision,

"Cut him down Gary he can have some time alone while he has a little rest, wouldn't want him getting tired now would we?"

The darkness had lessened but the rain didn't stop.

"Why am I here?"

Sam's voice cracked but after what felt like hours of sitting in the silence and hearing nothing but the rain, he had to speak, even if no one heard him.

Was that the Test Card Girl again?

Sam chuckled softly at that idea and tried again to move his left hand, the blow from the pipe seemed to have immobilized it. He had bigger worries though; the rain pouring in didn't seem to be _going_ anywhere, just sitting on the stones, with him…

Gene threw himself against the door and its rough rusty surface smashed to the ground. The bunker was empty and despair flickered across Gene's face he reached for his hip flask, finding it empty he threw it to the ground and kicked the door and smashed it against the mess of broken wire and metal, an iron pole with rust over the end rolled onto his foot and he kicked it away, it smashed into a pot of red paint which spilled over the floor. He turned to Chris and Ray; pushing past them he collapsed into the Cortina and drove off.

"Err… Ray… did you bring your car?"


	7. Chapter 7

Annie pushed open the door to Sam's flat; Gene sat on the bed his head in his hands.

"Guv?" she asked softly.

"Where is he Annie? We need him, like it or not we're nothing without him."

"Guv…that's not true…"

"Can't find my own DI… I deserve this." Gene handed her some papers,

Annie's fast brain picked out a few words

Suggested retirement…pension… 

She laughed,

"You can't retire!"

Gene looked at her surprised,

"What do you care? Sam will be next in line for promotion."

Annie looked at Gene hard,

"So" she bit her lip and forced the words out, "you think we will find him?"

"Not if we sit here all day, waiting for the ponce to turn up by himself."

Annie smiled as she saw the Guv's confidence returning and followed him as he walked out, shutting the door carefully behind her.

The water had risen to ankle height and Sam was shaking from the cold, he drew his leather jacket closer around his body and hugged himself tightly. He hoped the rain would stop, he hoped someone would come and get him out…Annie and Gene could be on their way…he hoped that any one would come and find him even if it was the people who had taken him the silence and repetition of raindrops made his ears hurt.

Gene found himself wandering the dark streets; night brought the sounds of drunks, police sirens, and dogs barking. He smiled content in the knowledge that he was the sheriff, out and about, looking after his town. A noise behind him alerted him to the fact that he was not alone, someone pushed him against the wall and hit him very hard over the head, and luckily he threw himself to the side just in time, the bottle smashed against the cold brick wall. Another dark figure rushed him and Gene tried to fight back but they smacked him round the head and he fell to the ground senseless.

Annie was asleep when they came for her, she was tired out after helping the Guv' look for Sam and when she woke up she was propped up against a wall in shallow water, with a splitting headache and so cold she wondered if she was dead.

Sitting up properly she saw two dark figures lying with their backs against the wall, they too were stirring from some kind of sleep.

"Ahhh bloody hell…"

"Gene?" Sam didn't remember falling asleep, just being to tired and exhausted to stop himself.

"Sam? Where in the name of God have you been?" He groaned, "Never mind that, where the hell are we?"

Sam didn't reply but strained his eyes to see the figure stirring opposite him and Gene.

"Annie?" his voice was wavering as he tried to stop himself bursting with emotion that she was here.

Annie heard Sam's voice and moved towards him,

"Mind out Cartwright,"

Annie cursed her aching head and the inability of her eyes to be able to focus; bumping into her DCI was not part of the plan.

Sam reached out and pulled her into a damp but firm hug,

"Oi' Cartwright where's my hug?"

Sam laughed, and Annie smiled as Gene stood up.

"It's all very well you two getting all snuggled and having a bit of a snog, but we need to get out and the only people who can get us out of here are Chris and Ray, so we, by my calculations are in a bit of a pickle."

Sam also got to his feet and helped Annie up.

"The people who put us here are…not very nice." He finished lamely, remembering the pipe smacking into his back and wriggled the fingers of his left hand, which seemed to be working again.


	8. Chapter 8

Chris was worried, first the Boss, then the Guv' and now Cartwright had gone missing, him and Ray were at first apprehensive that they would send down a replacement from Hyde or Litton's department, but Ray pointed out that they wouldn't care if half the department died so long as the smell didn't bother them.

Phyllis had told them to get on with some paperwork, but Chris knew she was anxious too.

Sometimes Chris wished he was a proper detective, and could work things out from the smell of the victim's hair, or a fibre under their nails. But he had never got that flash of inspiration.

Ray didn't care when Tyler went, but when Gene disappeared and Cartwright it was downright weird, Chris didn't really know what to do, and as his superior he had tried to take command, but then Phyllis had come along and told them to get on with the paperwork. They were going to where the Guv' had first looked for Tyler, this was because, as Chris put it "Where else can we go?"

Chris was nervous, he never usually drove anywhere in his job, and last time he tried it all went horribly wrong. The ground was bumpy and the little police car shook them around and Chris thought it was almost as bad as being driven by the Guv'- he quickly tried to forget he thought that and focus on the job at hand.

The warehouse was still empty and the paint had solidified, it was funny, Chris though but he could have sworn that when the Guv' knocked over the pain tin none went on the pole. It was also odd that there were ropes lying loose at the bottom of the supporting pillar that were definitely not there last time


End file.
